doesn't seem too tricky to dispatch humanely - might be worth obtaining an air rifle- are air rifle still unlicensed?

Yup, up to ft/lb, which is plenty for a close range grey, head shot, clean kill.
ETA, remember, if you beat your kids you get a free social worker, injure a squirrel and the law will come down on you like a ton of bricks...

doesn't seem too tricky to dispatch humanely - might be worth obtaining an air rifle- are air rifle still unlicensed?

Yup, up to ft/lb, which is plenty for a close range grey, head shot, clean kill.
ETA, remember, if you beat your kids you get a free social worker, injure a squirrel and the law will come down on you like a ton of bricks...

You can use a chronograph to measure the speed of a pellet and then work out the rifles power from that and the weight of the pellet. Chronos can be bought or borrowed or a gun smith should be able to help. If it's over the legal limit and you don't have a licence then you're in trouble.

Hairyloon

Joined: 20 Nov 2008Posts: 14871Location: Today I are mostly being in Yorkshire.

How many? 12
I assume mine is within the limit, but how would I tell? If it hasn't been tuned and is still standard, Google is your friend, if it has been tuned, you'll need someone with a chronograph

Quote:

which is plenty for a close range grey, head shot, clean kill.

And how can you tell what range it is effective at? Practice on 1" pine boards, extending range by 1 metre inervals, when the pellet stops penetrating the boards, it won't penetrate a skull.
Obviously accuracy is one limitation which is fairly easy to test, but hitting power is more tricky.

Hairyloon

Joined: 20 Nov 2008Posts: 14871Location: Today I are mostly being in Yorkshire.

I shoot the invading population that is living off the fat of our chicken food etc. They are predictable and return at same times each day. Count so far this year is around 4.

Husbando has also deployed some sort of device that attaches to a tree, feeds them nuts to get them using it, then adds in the killing thingy. It works really well. Since he put it active, it caught/killed 3 squirrels in 1 day, and another the next day. Only problem with it is he put it at his height and the mechanism is quite hard to reset...so squirrel is there and #1 on his list of jobs for the weekend. Aren't I kind?!